Research Note: Hitachi Vantara reorganises and announces the VSP One platform

Hitachi Vantara has reorganised to spin off the consultancy and IoT services from previous business consolidations. At the same time, the company has announced a single storage platform called VSP One, which will deliver a unified experience for storage customers across block, file and object protocols.

Background

Hitachi Vantara was formed from the merger of Hitachi Data Systems, Hitachi Insight Group, and the Pentaho acquisition in 2015. The business further expanded with the integration of Hitachi Consulting in 2019. Hitachi Vantara operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd, a Japanese conglomerate.

Historically, Hitachi Data Systems started in 1989 selling Hitachi mainframes. A decade later, the mainframe business was dropped in favour of data storage systems, including the Freedom Storage 9900 series, one of the first non-mainframe storage products marketed by the company. This hardware platform was the first to implement an internal crossbar switch “Hi-Star” architecture and introduced the 100% availability guarantee still offered today.

Over the last 20 years, Hitachi Data Systems, then Hitachi Vantara, introduced the USP, VSP and a series of midrange storage solutions. Today, the core block-based storage products are the VSP 5000 series (high-end) and VSP E series (mid-range). Our Hitachi Vantara X-Ray report provides more information.

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Unstructured Data

Alongside the core USP/VSP platform, Hitachi Data Systems acquired BlueArc in 2011, using that technology to deliver HNAS and a portfolio of file-based solutions. HDS acquired Archivas in 2007, using the technology to deliver Hitachi Content Platform (known initially as Hitachi Content Archive Platform, or HCAP).

Consolidation

As both HNAS and HCP have relied on the core block-based storage products to provide physical storage capacity, we can see a natural consolidation opportunity. HCP and HNAS can simply be personas of the VSP platform rather than add-on nodes as they are today. This is one aspect of what we believe the VSP One platform will offer for on-premises customers.

SVOS

For the public cloud, we expect Hitachi Vantara to port the underlying storage operating system of VSP (SVOS, or Storage Virtual Operating System) into the public cloud. This should enable customers to extend data from on-premises systems into the public cloud and back again.

Feature Set

Creating a single unified storage platform isn’t a new idea. The storage market already has unified solutions that consolidate block, file, and object storage. Most of these solutions already offer optimisation of the physical infrastructure. However, the opportunity for Hitachi Vantara is the value-added services that could be built on top of a single data platform. Features could include the following ideas.

Data cataloguing and lifecycle management. For example, identifying data critical to business processes and automating the placement on the most appropriate media during the data lifetime.
Intelligent data mobility. Presenting data and making it accessible across all points of a diversified infrastructure.
Cost and performance optimisation. Placement of data and platform expansion based on predicted demand and growth.
Data services plugins. Extensibility past the traditional three protocols with APIs for databases, data protection, ransomware, and other early warning systems.

These are just some examples. We expect Hitachi Vantara to initially focus on the resiliency and reliability of the current platform, extending these virtues across the three main data protocols.

Reorganisation

Hitachi Vantara also recently announced a reorganisation, with some aspects of the business spun off into Hitachi Digital Services. Sheila Rohra will move up and become CEO of Hitachi Vantara from 1^st November 2023.

When Hitachi Vantara was established in September 2017, we weren’t entirely sure that the merger of the infrastructure and IoT divisions made sense. The logic appeared to be that Hitachi storage resources would underpin solutions built to support IoT and the broader demand for data-based infrastructure and software solutions.

It appears that this confusing strategy may have been too complicated for customers to grasp. As Hitachi Vantara focuses on the core infrastructure business going forward, we can envisage a clearer picture of what the business offers and the market it serves.

The Architect’s View®

The announcement of VSP One is, at this stage, more aspiration than solid products and services. We expect to see some crystallisation of the vision in early 2024, with announcements of new products and services, including the public cloud.

However, we don’t believe that simply offering a “better mousetrap” will be enough to persuade customers to beat a path to Hitachi Vantara’s metaphorical door. Instead, we think the company will need to add features at the data level, not just storage.

Vendors such as Pure Storage and NetApp already have fleet management capabilities, with flexible commercial models and (in NetApp’s case) integration in the public cloud. Hitachi Vantara has much work to do just to catch up with peers in the industry.

We look forward to discovering what Hitachi Vantara has to offer. Let’s hope the evolution of VSP One delivers some decent innovation and breathes more life back into on-premises storage.